533 - Bloody 4th

In the summer of 1873, the Northern Pacific railroad reached the Missouri River at Bismarck just as a financial panic struck and caused economic depression across the country. Many businesses, including the Northern Pacific, were forced to declare bankruptcy. For the next six years, construction of the rail line was stalled and Bismarck became known as the “end of the line.” Many rail workers, as well as the gamblers, prostitutes, saloonkeepers, and drug dealers who had followed the Northern Pacific west, settled in for the duration. Bismarck’s reputation took a turn for the worse, becoming one of the wildest and wickedest towns in the west.

At the time, Bismarck was made up of roughly 150 structures, mostly tents and log or wood-framed buildings. A concentration of outfitters, dance halls, saloons, casinos, and brothels along Fourth Street catered to rail workers, soldiers, and prospectors. The neighborhood between Main Street and Thayer became known as “Bloody Fourth” or “Murderer’s Gulch.” Gunfights, knife fights, and other acts of violence were reported weekly.

Two of the worst ruffians, Dave Mullen and Jack O’Neil, owned the Concert Saloon and Dance Hall on the corner of Fourth and Broadway Ave where, one night in 1873, a gang of gamblers got into a shootout with soldiers from nearby Fort Lincoln. Mullen, the bar owner, was among the dead when the shooting stopped. O’Neil lost his life in another gunfight on Fourth Street just over a year later.
Bismarck remained a tough town for some But once gold was discovered in the Black Hills, many end-of-the-liners caught the stagecoach to Deadwood, bringing about the end to Bismarck’s most violent era.